Astronomers say a newly discovered solar system about 116 light years from Earth is challenging long held ideas about how planets form.
According to CNN, researchers using telescopes from NASA and the European Space Agency found four planets orbiting the red dwarf star LHS 1903 in an unexpected order.
Typically, rocky planets form close to a star while gas giants sit farther away.
In this system, scientists found a rocky planet, followed by two gaseous planets, and then another rocky world on the outer edge.
The discovery was detailed in a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
“The paradigm of planet formation is that we have rocky inner planets very close to the stars, like in our solar system,” said Thomas Wilson, first author of a study on the discovery that was published Thursday in the journal Science.
“This is the first time in which we have a rocky planet so far away from its host star, and after these gas-rich planets.”
The outer rocky planet, LHS 1903 e, is a so-called super Earth with a radius about 1.7 times that of our planet.
Scientists first spotted the system using NASA’s TESS telescope and later confirmed it with ESA’s Cheops mission and other observatories.
“We think that these planets formed in very different environments from each other, and that is what’s kind of unique about this system,” Wilson said.
“This outer planet, which is rockier compared to the middle two planets, shouldn’t have happened, based on the standard formation theory. But what we think happened is that it formed later than the other planets.”
